Where to Find and Post Linux News

Two things I do every morning no matter what are drink my morning coffee and read the latest Linux news. A day without either of them would be a disaster. Because getting Linux news is so important to me I’ve kept track of several Linux news sites and tested the value and focus of their articles. I’ve also participated in many of these sites and have noted significant traffic changes as we move deeper into the age of social media. As things change it may be time to re-evaluate where your reading and submitting your Linux news.

If you’re just a Linux user looking to brush up on today’s latest Linux news, you’re in luck. You have a ton of options and more every day. Sites like Lxer, LinuxToday, OSNews, Digg, FSdaily and Linux.com will all likely carry the big stories of the day as many of them share the same users. The question is more about how you want your news displayed. Some sites choose to run large ads, small ads, and even full page ads. Other sites offer full communities, article point systems, and an intricate friend networks.

1) LinuxToday has been around for awhile but pushes an aggressive ad campaign and doesn’t offer the community and discussions I’ve enjoyed on other news sites. Still, LinuxToday features top articles related to Linux and is a vet in the news game.

2) OSNews features a community approach to news and offers registered users a chance to comment on articles, make friends, “star” stories, and more. This site is a great resource for users looking for computing articles but my focus is a little narrower.

3) FSDaily is a community type open-source news site that features articles from around the net. This site includes popular this week, popular today and popular upcoming sections that have proven an effective way to display recent articles. I’m unsure of the voting system and how it effects the stories order. I’ve often wondered, “what’s that doing up there”.

4) Digg includes the top articles from Linux, open-source and everything else you’re curious about. You can also take advantage of photo and video diggs as well as the extremely active digg community with many assets including the recently integrated Facebook features. Digg would be my choice for finding news for users that enjoy the friends, the community and the comments. Digg is a little too political for me sometimes but has an unmatched selection of articles.

5) Lxer, has a great mix of it all. Lxer is simple and produces a consistent flow of news worthy Linux and open-source articles. This dependable news press also includes featured, daily story, and weekly round-up articles which I enjoy very much. The smaller community of Lxer is pleasant, helpful and knowledgeable.

6) LinuxFeeds.org is a WordPress site that has indexed hundreds of Linux feeds, although the site is still in its early stages I suspect many visitor hungry Linux sites will be submitting their RSS feeds there soon. If you’re after news, you can find almost all Linux feeds located here including Youtube feeds and podcasts focused on Linux.

7) After being acquired by the LinuxFoundation, Linux.com has been recently re-designed based on a heavily modified version of Joomla. The site includes state of the art features that allow users to interact, participate and even build up Linux guru status. It’s a little too early to asses the quality and dependability of Linux.com news articles, I think they’re on the right track integrating third party applications like Twitter with their community. More on Linux.com in June.

If you’re an article submitter or depend on Linux news sites for traffic you may be interested to know all of these sites will accept article submissions and potentially send some traffic your way. Traffic from these sources is dwindling as social media networks expand however you may be more likely to find a return visitor from a news site than from your Twitter, Facebook, or Myspace page. I’ve also found that bounce rates are higher and time on site is lower when visitors come from social media sites. Another advantage the news site still has is Google’s response when receiving links from high ranked news sites. So before you count out top news sites remember that few places can offer the targeted traffic and other benefits of good old fashion Linux news sites.

WINNER
If you’re after a site that has all the Linux news you want, friendly staff, and few advertisements, head over to Lxer.com. Lxer is my pick for viewing news because of its consistency and article quality. The site is simple and straight forward while offering all the necessary features for me to enjoy my daily dose of Linux news.

For submitting Linux news articles few sites are as dependable, fair and non-political as Lxer. Traffic and article impressions are often the first thing thought about when submitting articles however as traffic drops on all Linux news sites what would you prefer? A news site lined with more and more Microsoft ads or an honest up front place to submit your articles and meet some new friends?

Related

My top three are Linux Today, LXer, and Linux Weekly News. Linux Weekly News offers inexpensive paid subscriptions. You get instant access to paid content (which is freely available after a week), it allows LWN to keep ads to a minimum, and you get to tangle with some of the smartest and best-informed readers for any publication.

Who cares about Microsoft ads? MS funding Linux sites is OK with me, and you can always use an adblocker.

FSDaily is like digg.com but for free software/open source related news and articles. The site is run by FOSS enthusiasts and naturally is based entirely on FOSS.

Obviously, we are doing something wrong if this isn’t clear. We’ll have to do something to make it more obvious.

Once registered, you can submit links to news and articles, vote on posts, comments on posts and even write and submit blog entries. Plus our RSS feeds will keep your finger on the pulse.

Submitted stories go in the upcoming queue for 24 hours. If they receive enough votes during this time they are promoted to the home page. If they don’t get enough votes they go into the archives. If a post gets promoted then it is exposed to more readers and gains page rank from FSDaily.

For content providers: it’s a great way to get your articles and site discovered by the wider community, get more traffic and higher page rank.

For the FOSS community: it’s a great source of interesting news and articles which are chosen by the whole community rather than one editor.

The more the FOSS community joins in on the editing process at FSDaily, the higher the quality of the news provided. So, if you haven’t already, join up and help out!

GreyGeek

May 27, 2009 at 12:51 am

LinuxToday …doesn’t offer the community and discussions I’ve enjoyed on other news sites.

I am not sure what you are implying by that statement. I’ve been reading LT for almost 10 years and during that period it has always allowed readers to comment on and discuss articles. As far as being able to comment on articles its format is one of the easiest to use and read of any online mag.

The Microsoft ads on LT and other Linux sites don’t bother me at all. In fact, I am glad that revenue from Microsoft is funding these sites. I consider it a partial payback for all the MS taxes I’ve paid through the years.

I also use Groklaw when Im looking for some particular (and litigious) which I think PJ might have up on the site.

1. Sure Fab (he’s the schnitzel in the McShnitzel & Chips duo) hates freedom as much as he loves his Ipod, but its fun, informative, well segmented, great community and very pro FLOSS. Its Lugradio without the massive egos, inflated personalities, distro stroking, gr… oh, wait, its nothing like that. Its actually quite good.

2. Agree or not with Roy’s viewpoints, you cant say he doesnt work dman hard on making his site more up to date than most Linux news sites.
I dare you to find another site that has such good and constant links.
The links are added 3-4 times a week and if you have only one site to go to get your Linux/FLOSS news, BN is the one. More importantly, it covers every aspect of the Linux ecosystem.

3. For those afraid to venture out, there is the good old Linuxtoday.
Nice collection of links and Carla is my favorite FLOSS chick this side of PJ. She’s a good writer who isnt afraid to call it like she sees it and even has a bit of a chip every once in a while.
As for community, its regulars like Grey Goose, Brandioch Conner, Rene Leveuqe offer better and more insightful analysis than most bloggers do.

As for your point about community and LT, you said the best Linux news. Nothing about community.

“Digg would be my choice for finding news for users that enjoy the friends, the community and the comments.”
Again, do you want the best Linux news sites or not?
I dont want to make friends or debate with retards on threads that you will never again visit.
If you want to waste time, fine but debating on Digg is like having a battle of wits with Tom Cruise… why?

One thing Linux sites have in common is the beyond plain and boring looks of the site. I know content management software is often limited but the minimalist look is beyond depressing. I dont want Flash animation on every page but its like 1995 all over again.

Not a bad list but let’s face it, like most of them, its nothing more than some guy with a blog telling you about his favorite site/distro/desktop and then others telling you youre wrong and how could you insult my precious.
You started off with your favorite site which you think is the greatest think since slice bread and how you could pimp it
At the very least next time you can call it: “Where You Can Get Linux News and Make Friends Too”.

Most of us want the news and those of us who actually use RSS have no use or need for a community (yes, I understand the need to ‘belong’).

Holy donkey spit, Batman! You can’t leave Slashdot.org off of the list. It is THE news discussion hub of the FOSS and technology universe. Sure, you can find good up and coming Linux stories on Digg (though the popular stuff is rarely interesting), but your brains will run out of your ears if you read the comments on that site.

Aside from LinuxToday’s aggressive ad campaign mentioned in your article, I’ve often seen the same content posted over and over, some of it weeks old, on LinuxToday. Worse, nearly every on-topic follow-up comment I’ve left on LT articles has been censored for no apparent reason and refused with no explanation. Aggressive ads and censorship: my experience with LinuxToday. I no longer visit the site. The other sources mentioned for Linux news seems to be spot-on.

Al Nonymous

May 27, 2009 at 9:25 am

Wouldn’t it have made sense to include hyperlinks to the news sites in your article?

1) LinuxToday has been around for awhile but pushes an aggressive ad campaign and doesn’t offer the community and discussions I’ve enjoyed on other news sites.

Dude, you really shouldn’t drink the bong water, man. It’ll fsck you up! Make you say things like, “[Linux Today] doesn’t offer offer the discussions and community I’ve enjoyed on other sites.”

Dude, Linux Today has always had “Talk Back”. And as for community, you can always count on GreyGeek, Jose_X and even dweebs like Darryl to show up regularly. I even speak up from time to time under one or the other of my nyms.